This application is based upon and claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 10-227397, filed Aug. 11, 1998, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, such as a computer, which allows a user to select a desired area from data displayed on a display unit, and more particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method for controlling an area selecting process, and a storage medium that stores a program which causes the apparatus to execute control of an area selection.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer which displays image data on a screen of a display unit and thereby executes editing of the displayed image data is generally known. Application programs which cause the computer to execute the editing process are available to users in the form of a storage medium, such as a CD-ROM. The application program is read by the computer through a drive unit and is then loaded to a memory of the computer, enabling the computer to execute editing processes using the application program.
In an image data editing process, a user either selects an object area that is to be processed and thereafter executes a predetermined process for the selected area, or, after selecting the predetermined process, selects the object area for execution of the process.
When selecting the object area that is to be processed, a user manipulates anchors that are displayed along with image data on a display screen using an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse. For example, the user manipulates four anchors defining four corners of a rectangle, so that the rectangle is be placed within a predetermined area, or range of the image data.
As an alternative to using the keyboard and mouse to manipulate the anchors as described above, touch panels are mounted on the display screen of the display unit to enable the user to directly manipulate the anchors through contact with the touch panel on the display screen of the computer.
The editing process includes a process of storing data corresponding to the selected area in a portable type storage medium, such as a floppy disk, as a new file, along with a copying process and a deleting process associated with the selected area.
It is assumed that the image data of the object to be processed explained above is data obtained by either opening a file stored in the storage medium and loading the data in the memory, or reading a document with an image scanner and then loading the data in the memory.
There are known to be certain problems associated with the process of storing data, corresponding to a selected area, in a storage medium as a new file. For example, floppy disks, which storage media most generally used in the storing process, have a maximum storage capacity of about 1M byte, which is a relatively small storage capacity. Therefore, when manipulating the anchors to select the object area to be processed to execute the selection process for data to be stored, a user is must be able to recognize the size of the data selected to determine whether the selected area can be stored in the storage medium.
When storing the data of the selected area to the storage medium as a file, a user is requested to re-execute the area selection process and the storing process if the capacity of the file exceeds the storage capacity of the storage medium.
When image data is obtained as the object to be processed through reading of a document with an image scanner, the image data is read from the document with a lower resolution and is displayed on the screen of the display unit. The user manipulates the anchors as explained above to select the predetermined area of the data to be stored, and only the selected area of the document is read by the image scanner, setting the resolution to the desired value.
In this case, as explained above, the user must perform the manipulation for selecting an area using the anchors to set the data to a size which can be stored in the storage medium. When the amount of relevant data corresponding to the area selection exceeds the storage capacity of the storage medium and data can no longer be stored in the data storing process, the user is required to re-execute the processing procedures described above. In this way, the user must execute further manipulation procedures in addition to the manipulation procedures involved in the selection and storing process, increasing the required number of manipulations and making the process more burdensome.
Furthermore, when image data is obtained as the object to be processed through the reading of a document with an image scanner, the amount of the document that can be read is dependent upon the maximum storage capacity of the storage medium, or floppy disk, and therefore the data stored cannot exceed the storage capacity of the floppy disk. As a result, if the area of the document to be stored as a file is larger than the maximum storage capacity of the floppy disk, a portion of the document to be stored as the file by the user cannot be included as the selected image data, so that the storing process described above cannot be executed in some cases. Moreover, problems can still arise even when the size of the image data read from the document is less than the maximum storage capacity of the storage medium, so that the stored data includes the selected data. For example, if a file has previously been stored in the storage medium, since the previously stored file occupies a certain amount of the storage space of the storage medium, the storage capacity of the storage medium is reduced to less than the maximum storage capacity, and therefore the user would be unable to store the desired data.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus which reduces the amount of manipulation required.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus that allows a user to select data corresponding to a desired selected area without having to consider a maximum size to be selected.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus that controls selection of image data by a user with respect to the type of image data displayed.
Objects of the invention are achieved by an information processing apparatus that includes a display device that displays data and an input device for selecting a desired area of the data displayed by the display device. A memory device stores the selected desired data, and a processor compares a size of the selected desired area to a maximum storage capacity of the memory device. The processor controls the size of the selected desired area not to exceed the maximum storage capacity of the memory device.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, if the size of the selected desired area exceeds the maximum storage capacity of the memory device, the processor maintains a previously stored selected desired area.
In yet another preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the display data is image data, the input device selects the image data corresponding to one of either color image data or monochrome image data, and the processor controls the size of the selected desired area in response to the selected image data.
Objects of the present invention are also achieved by a storage device for storing programs causing a computer to select a desired area of data displayed on a display device that includes the process of setting a maximum size of an area that can be selected; detecting a size of the desired area selected; and controlling the size of the desired area selected not to exceed the maximum size of the area that can be selected.